Strophe

I was curious when I heard the word 'strophe' used in a book I've been listening to recently (A Most Remarkable Creature by Jonathan Meiburg) as I'd never thought of it as a stand alone word before, only as a suffix, as in apostrophe and catastrophe.

I'd never considered the meaning of the word

on its own so I looked it up 

- the word strophe

 refers to

 a stanza

 or 'a turning',

 "a group of verses that form

 a distinct unit within a poem," (Britannica) or music.

And there is another word

 made up of -strophe,

 antistrophe,

 which is to turn back.

Back on the Water

Ooh, it was so much fun getting out in my kayak for the first time this year. This poor fella was slow enough to be netted and photographed - it's a musk turtle (Sternothaurus odoratus), also known as a stinkpot. He looked like an armored vehicle.

I was serenaded by spring peepers along the banks, and I also managed to spot my marsh marigolds returning very unobtrusively on the bank, despite having looked for them determinedly from shore, without success, just one day prior.

 

It was very windy and overcast, but with temps in the mid-seventies, it was bliss! Plus, there are no ticks on the water - big bonus.

Photo: D Schultz

So happy to be able to get back to my happy place!

Ghostly Leaves

Ghostly pale beeches,

Leaves like skeletal remains

Scritching in spring's gusts

Not too Tardy

On this special day, Earth day, it's important to consider ALL our living creatures, even those we cannot see. I'm talking about tardigrades, which are amazing microscopic creatures living in our soils, resilient enough to be able to survive radiation. They're micro-animals also known as water bears, though bears they are not. They're chubby little critters with telescoping legs that look as if they might have inspired sci-fi and fantasy monsters.

Popular Science Science Photo Library/Getty Images

This 0.02 inch creature (about the size of the period at the end of this sentence) lives in mosses, lichens, as well as soil and leaf litter as a nutrient recycler. They can suspend their metabolism, so are not affected by extremes. I've never seen one, but there can be "as many as 300,000 per square metre" in soil, or "over 2 million per square metre" on mossy substrates! Wikipedia

We have to stop destroying them willy-nilly with our thoughtless land use upheaval practices - their capabilities to handle extremes may help us save our planet one day. They are already helping us learn how to counter the effects of radiation treatments. Though they are practically indestructible, they have one weakness - hot water, which can kill them.

On this Earth Day, resolve to give nature and all living things more than a passing thought on a regular basis.